Defendants Get 1-10 Years Hard Labor, Visa Applications Rejected for Markish Family

The nine Jewish defendants in the second Leningrad trial were convicted today on charges ranging from anti-Soviet activities to treason and were sentenced to hard labor in labor camps ranging from one year to 10, Jewish sources reported today. The heaviest penalty was meted out to Ilya Grigory (Hillel) Butman, 38-year-old engineer. Mikhail Korenblit was sentenced to 7 years, Lassal Kaminsky and Lev Naumovich Yagman to 5 each, Vladimir Osherovich Mogilever to 4, Viktor David Boguslavsky, Solomon (Shlomo) Dreizner and Lev Korenblit to 3 each and Viktor Shtilbans to 1. Seven of the sentences matched the prosecution’s demands; Kaminsky and Mikhail Korenblit were sentenced to one year less each than the prosecution asked. Jewish sources said the nine Jews planned an appeal to the Supreme Soviet.

In Moscow on Tuesday, the sources continued, the widow and son of Peretz Markish, the renowned pro-Communist Yiddish poet who was killed in the Stalin purges of 1952, had their applications for emigration rejected. Mrs. Esther Markish is in her 60s and her son David is in his 30s. The sources added that four more Leningrad Jews have been fired from their jobs and classes for applying for emigration. They were identified as Morhocova and Rozanskaya, two women who lost their jobs, and Krasilshtzikov and Venger, students ejected from their courses at the Leningrad University in their sixth and last year. The sources said the students realized they were jeopardizing their post-graduate diplomas but felt they had to make the attempt to emigrate while restrictions were relatively relaxed.